Overview

Vantage Bank is a family-owned, Texas-based bank with a growing portfolio and presence. To support its expansion, we partnered on a full rebrand and website redesign. The goal was to modernize the bank’s digital experience, restructure its product portfolio, and create scalable frameworks that serve both community customers and new audiences like international clients and fintech partners.

This work transformed the bank’s digital presence from a regional, product-siloed site into a modern, B2B-ready platform that reflects its new positioning: “Relationships built on financial foresight”.

This is their homepage before we worked on it:

My Role

I was the solo UX designer and researcher on this engagement, responsible for shaping the entire experience strategy:

• Led research and persona development, distilling business goals and user needs into actionable insights.

• Defined the information architecture (IA) and navigation, scaling it to support four key lines of business: Personal, Business, International, and Collaborations.

• Created user flows for multiple personas — including small business owners, cross-border clients, and fintech executives.

• Designed homepage and site-wide wireframes, covering product families, comparison tools, banker directories, success stories, and support experiences.

• Collaborated with the branding team to ensure brand voice, tone, and visual direction were reflected in the site structure and patterns.

The Challenge

The existing site was limited in scale and spoke only to traditional community banking customers. Vantage needed a digital experience that could:

• Support its expanded offerings in digital banking, cross-border services, and fintech collaborations.

• Appeal to both individuals and businesses with clear, tailored pathways.

• Modernize its information architecture, which had become too small for the bank’s ambitions.

• Compete not only with regional peers but also with digital-first banks and fintechs.

Approach

1. Research & Personas

• I created personas like Rosa (domestic entrepreneur), Dr. Gonzalez (retail medical professional), and Michael (small business attorney). Their needs and frustrations directly shaped the navigation, product hierarchy, and self-service tools.

• This is an example Persona:

2. Information Architecture

• Completely restructured the IA around four clear pillars — Personal, Business, International, and Collaborations — with scalable product families, comparison tools, and detail pages.

3. User Flows

• Mapped end-to-end flows from awareness to conversion for each persona type. These flows emphasized transparency, fast-track consultations, and streamlined onboarding.

• Here is an example:

4. Wireframes

• Homepage: Positioned Vantage as modern yet trusted, blending local roots with international reach.

• Product & Solutions: Modular templates for product families, detail pages, and side-by-side comparisons.

• Support & Engagement: Templates for banker directories, contact pages, FAQs, campaigns, and legal resources.

Outcomes

The result is a dramatically modernized experience — described as “night and day” compared to the old site.

The new platform:

• Expands IA to match the scale of the bank’s offerings.

• Aligns brand, voice, and design principles across every touchpoint.

• Creates personalized journeys for retail, commercial, international, and fintech audiences.

• Establishes a flexible foundation to compete with both regional banks and digital-first challengers.

Timeline

From first IA draft in May 2025 through Set 5 wireframes in August 2025, the UX work was delivered in just under 3 months.

Results

The site is currently in design and development. Once live, I’ll add performance metrics (conversion, engagement, NPS) to demonstrate impact.